tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73851298808700292792017-09-16T04:01:37.334-07:00Movies according to DaveDavid Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.comBlogger295125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-21310751000710853982017-08-25T20:29:00.001-07:002017-08-25T20:53:42.669-07:00The Bodyguard's Hitman<div style="text-align: justify;">Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson make quite the "Odd Couple" in director Patrick Hughes' high octane, no-holds-barred buddy action-comedy 'The Hitman's Bodyguard,' a movie in which a foul-mouthed Salma Hayek outshined (and possibly out-killed) both.&nbsp; Part Quentin Tarantino and part Shane Black, THB is all fun and a reason why I love blood-soaked action comedies that don't take themselves too seriously.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reynolds&nbsp;plays Michael Bryce,&nbsp;a former CIA agent-turned-private bodyguard, excuse me, "protection agent" who's the best in the business.&nbsp; In fact, he's&nbsp;"Triple-A" certified and had never lost a client, until he did which caused his impeccable reputation and&nbsp;career to take a steep nose-dive.&nbsp; When Interpol was compromised in its efforts to escort&nbsp;Samuel L's&nbsp;assassin, Darius Kincaid, to testify against&nbsp;Gary Oldman's notorious dictator of Belarus&nbsp;at the International Court of Justice for "Crimes Against Humanity" (massacring civilians),&nbsp;Bryce was given a second chance for redemption and to regain his&nbsp;lost standing by an ex who was the lone surviving Interpol agent.&nbsp; Bryce must safely deliver&nbsp;Kincaid&nbsp;while hitmen galore&nbsp;working for Oldman&nbsp;declare open season on them.&nbsp; Can they survive?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">After 'Deadpool,' it's refreshing to see Reynolds take on a more serious, straight-laced role while&nbsp;Samuel L&nbsp;gets to have most of the fun.&nbsp; The chemistry between them is great, as is Salma Hayek, whom believe me&nbsp;you do not want to mess with.&nbsp; But THB is not just your typical mindless mayhem, oh no.&nbsp; It's also a tender romance (between&nbsp;Darius&nbsp;and Hayek's&nbsp;Sonia) set to classic love songs.&nbsp; So it's really the perfect date movie if you think about it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grade: A-</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;<a href="https://postimg.org/image/4mp8xqotf/" target="_blank"><img alt="hitman-bodyguard-poster-large" border="0" height="640" src="https://s29.postimg.org/rbefxb67b/hitman-bodyguard-poster-large.jpg" width="420" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-56924934299041426312017-08-08T20:17:00.001-07:002017-08-09T21:27:58.381-07:00The Gunslinger & The Man in Black<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Few writers had as much of their works mined for movie adaptation as Stephen King.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While the prolific novelist is considered to be the undisputed reigning “Master of Horror” and deservedly so, with most of his horror stories (novels and short stories alike) translated into films and mini-series, two out of three of my favorite adaptions of his extensive body of work are actually not in the horror genre, ‘Stand by Me’ and ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;with </span>‘The Shining’ being the exception.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I admit I’m not the biggest Stephen King fan as far as his books are concerned (and I haven’t read most of them), but there are very few of his movies or TV mini-series I haven’t seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So despite the scathing reviews the critics have levied upon ‘The Dark Tower,’ I wasn’t about to break the streak.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, so I haven’t read ‘The Dark Tower’ series either, but I figured that’s not necessarily a bad thing because I won’t be disappointed if the movie didn’t live up to the books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>TDT can be best characterized as a dark fantasy sci-fi western about Good versus Evil, a recurring theme of Stephen King’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In TDT we have multiple worlds and dimensions, a protagonist anti-hero in Roland Deschain (“The Gunslinger” played by Idris Elba) who’s sort of a knight in a western, and a soft-spoken evil wizard (“The Man in Black” portrayed by Matthew McConaughey) with the unpretentious name of Walter Padick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There’s also the “boy with all the gifts,” 11-year old Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) who, as you might have surmised, holds the key to defeating “The Man in Black.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">TDT is a serviceable movie intended to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, but in light of its disappointing box office numbers over the weekend one can only conclude that it’s ill-conceived from the start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>By not being faithful to the book and in essentially making it into a YA movie, the vociferous TDT fans are not happy, but they’re not numerous enough to make TDT a financial success anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>OTOH mainstream moviegoers didn't exactly embrace it with open arms either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While TDT was the number 1 movie last weekend, its $19 million in domestic ticket sales is the lowest of any “weekend box office winner” all summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“Serviceable” just isn’t good enough these days.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: B</span></div><em><span style="font-family: &quot;times&quot; , &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></em><br /><em><span style="font-family: &quot;times&quot;;">"The Man in Black"?&nbsp; Isn't it the Men in Black?</span></em><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/86n06ptbn/" target="_blank"><img alt="darktowerintl2" border="0" height="640" src="https://s5.postimg.org/fmm9sih13/darktowerintl2.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-49916604031801313442017-08-08T20:11:00.002-07:002017-08-09T21:52:25.613-07:00Lethal Beauty<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Simply put, I love women who kick ass and look good while doing it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about an angsty teen who slays vampires and monsters (Buffy), wet work-specializing femmes fatales who kill with their looks as much as their “very particular set of skills” (Sydney Bristow and Nikita), or comic book superheroines like the recent Wonder Woman played by Gal Gadot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It should come as no surprise, then, that Charlize Theron’s noirish Cold War spy actioner, ‘Atomic Blonde,’ is a “can’t miss” in my book.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Based on the obscure 2012 graphic novel ‘The Coldest City,’ ‘Atomic Blonde’ (the name itself sounds badass, doesn’t it?) is set in 1989 Berlin during the last days of the Cold War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even though the Berlin Wall is about to come down and a sense of chaotic euphoria is sweeping across the land, the spy game between the East and West still rages on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>After a British intelligence agent was killed and a list of names of every western spy (the Holy Grail in spy movies) falls into the hands of the KGB, veteran MI6 trouble-shooter Lorraine Broughton (the Atomic Blonde) is sent to Berlin to recover it and uncover a suspected double agent in MI6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yeah, the powers-that-be pretty much dropped her into a Hornets' Nest with no safety net.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If ‘Atomic Blonde’ reminds you a bit of John Wick, it’s probably because they’re both directed by David Leitch, whose camerawork and continuous-shot action sequences virtually set a new standard in action movies with his brutal and hyper-kinetic style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Like JW, AB is an unstoppable maelstrom of poetic violence when unleashed, bloody and utterly uncompromising in a world of “kill or be killed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Punch-stab-kick and repeat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s gritty yet also a thing of sheer beauty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While there is a semblance of a plot filled with double-crosses and belief-defying twists, it merely provides a vehicle for Theron to wield her deadly arts and to satiate our thirst for visceral violence (and a good dose of gratuitous girl-on-girl action too).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Move over, Evelyn Salt.</span><br /><br />Grade: A<br /><br /><a href="https://postimg.org/image/y0s7ir3xv/" target="_blank"><img alt="Atomic_Blonde" border="0" height="640" src="https://s5.postimg.org/hps3mfrg7/Atomic_Blonde.jpg" width="404" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-49418973198464582222017-07-25T20:47:00.003-07:002017-07-25T21:08:10.022-07:002701: A Space Oddity<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prolific French filmmaker Luc Besson brings to the big screen the French sci-fi/action comic "Valerian and Laureline" by replacing Laureline with a gigantic space station hosting “thousands” of alien races in ‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.'<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>V&amp;TCO1000P is easily Besson’s most ambitious, sprawling, visually stylish&nbsp;and expensive gamble, I mean project, since ‘The Fifth Element’ starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich some 20 years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Being a fan of T5E I marked this movie on my “to see” list ever since I initially saw its colorful and swashbuckling trailer packed to the gills with unique aliens and gee-whiz futurama, but in the deep recess of my mind lurked the nagging fear that it would turn out to be another ‘Jupiter Ascending.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Therefore, I took care not to dial my expectations&nbsp;up too high.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Aside from the fact that I never read the comic which inspired it, that is perhaps why I enjoyed V&amp;TCO1000P so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Major Valerian (Dane DeHann) and his comely and sassy blonde sidekick Sergeant Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are elite agents of a special Space Police unit operating out of a giant space station named “Alpha” which hosts innumerable alien races (think Babylon 5 but much, much bigger) living in peaceful harmony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A seemingly routine mission to recover a valuable device (a power converter) on a desert planet thrusts Valerian and Laureline into a web of deceit and intrigue involving a race of lithe, androgynous and translucent-skinned aliens.</span><br />&nbsp;</div><a href="https://postimg.org/image/do9mopnp1/" target="_blank"><img alt="5d9362b675399c9baeb285d7a2cf3d5f76387f91" border="0" height="233" src="https://s2.postimg.org/q2wep1f7d/5d9362b675399c9baeb285d7a2cf3d5f76387f91.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/do9mopnp1/" target="_blank"></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Critics have faulted V&amp;TCO1000P mostly for its weak and contrived story but come on, this is a Luc Besson movie we’re talking about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While the plot isn’t exactly awesome or original for that matter, it is much more conventional and straightforward tha</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">n, say, Besson’s ‘Lucy.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With its campy humor, wild-eyed fantasy and high-tech Avatar-esque visuals, V&amp;TCO1000P is a rollicking space opera that’s fun for the whole family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’ve learned long ago that Luc Besson movies are visceral experiences; don’t overthink them and just sit back and enjoy the ride.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Oh, and don’t forget the popcorn.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/13a6lpcb0r/" target="_blank"><img alt="maxresdefault" border="0" height="640" src="https://s1.postimg.org/8h4vugwyq7/maxresdefault.jpg" width="440" /></a></div><br />David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-18847758189950199122017-07-25T20:32:00.001-07:002017-07-25T23:36:51.965-07:00No Small Miracle<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 1940 “Miracle at Dunkirk” is the subject of Christopher Nolan’s latest big budget feature, a vast sweeping WWII epic and passion project from the acclaimed British director best known for the ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy and a couple of FX-heavy sci-fi mindbenders that start with an “I,” ‘Inception’ and ‘Interstellar.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In turning an ignominious and unmitigated military disaster resulting from German “shock and awe” (aka Blitzkrieg) lightning warfare that brought France to her knees in a little more than two weeks into a symbol of British defiance, individual heroism and selfless sacrifice, the story of&nbsp;Dunkirk just begs to be re-told (there was a 1958 version apparently which I haven’t seen) to a modern audience who sadly know too little about world history.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The narrative of ‘Dunkirk’ is divided into three distinct but related parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“The Mole” follows a lowly British PBI (poor bloody infantryman) named Tommy (aren’t they all?) as he attempts to survive repeated Luftwaffe air attacks and reach “Home Sweet Home.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>“The Sea” is mostly told from the POV of a British naval officer (Kenneth Branagh) overseeing the evacuation effort and a yachtsman (Mark Rylance) who answered the call to join the hastily assembled fleet of private fishing vessels, yachts and ferry boats sailing toward Dunkirk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Lastly, “The Air” is seen through the eyes of a RAF Spitfire pilot (Tom Hardy) who risks running out of fuel before he can return to base in order&nbsp;to provide air cover for the helpless (“where is the bloody air force?!”) Tommies who can only anxiously peer into the sky at the sound of approaching German bombers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While the non-linear storytelling and down-in-the-dirt POV are effective in conveying the realism, chaos, fear, heroism and, yes,&nbsp;even cowardice one would expect in the unforgiving&nbsp;crucible of war and make for a harrowing viewing experience, the juxtaposition of the three subplots and the rapidly shifting perspectives&nbsp;achieved through cut scenes in&nbsp;editing&nbsp;prevented the movie from reaching greatness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even though the three parts did come together at the end (and two of them intersected at another point earlier in the film), it lacked the dramatic impact and emotional resonance of more linear war movies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Nolan shouldn't have given 'Dunkirk' the ‘Memento’ treatment, but do go see it anyway because films such as this should really&nbsp;be watched on the big screen (unless you have a state-of-the-art home theatre system and don't mind the wait) so you can hear and feel the rumbles and reverberations of every explosion deep down in your very bones.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A-<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/amzqisal1/" target="_blank"><img alt="dunkirk" border="0" height="640" src="https://s18.postimg.org/z3hwd9bbt/dunkirk.jpg" width="432" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-69904542903728807682017-07-18T21:15:00.002-07:002017-07-19T19:28:15.728-07:00Ape-pocalypse Now<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The rebooted ‘Planet of the Apes’ trilogy comes to a fitting if somewhat sad conclusion in director Matt Reeves’s ‘War for the Planet of the Apes,’ the follow-up to ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ (2011) and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ (2014) which tell the story of how a human-engineered “simian virus” decimated humanity and made monkeys and apes the dominant species on earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A modern take on the POTA franchise of the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s with prosthetic made-up apes featuring Roddy McDowall (few remember the 2001 Tim Burton remake starring Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter), this new trilogy combined cutting-edge computer animation with facial mapping (notably Andy Serkis’s) to give the various apes in the films a hyper-realistic yet all-too-human quality.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the (ape) shit finally hits the fan&nbsp; in WFTPOTA and the war is on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Going by its action-packed preview trailer one could easily come away with the impression that the conflict between homo sapiens and apes comes to a head and all hell breaks loose, but it’s actually quite a bit more complicated and nuanced than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice it to say that Woody Harrelson’s character (simply referred to as "The Colonel"), inspired by Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz&nbsp;in ‘Apocalypse Now’ and Caesar’s key nemesis in the film, didn’t have the luxury of solely focusing on wiping out ape-kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There’s a bigger picture at work here.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even more so than the previous ROTPOTA, Caesar carries the weight of his people’s deliverance on his tired shoulders while Woody Harrelson’s “Alpha-Omega” paramilitary faction seeks to enslave and ultimately destroy them</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This Caesar isn't one to cross the Rubicon and challenge the humans in a war of annihilation where only the strongest survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Like Jesus, Caesar is more likely to extend an olive branch to his enemies with turn-the-other-cheek humility and grace, even if they shove it right&nbsp;back in his face.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Is peaceful coexistence between humans and apes even possible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not if "The Colonel" still draws his last dying breath.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/lvo1iivwf/" target="_blank"><img alt="wftpota" border="0" height="640" src="https://s3.postimg.org/liwnccdmr/wftpota.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-63702862727838067252017-07-18T20:57:00.002-07:002017-07-18T21:08:00.122-07:00The Wishing Box<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Teenagers love scary movies, even the bad ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s hard to go to a horror movie nowadays without noticing that a majority of the audience seems to be 20 or under, and a good portion of that even much younger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Now that I think of it, I was probably one of them back in the day, since I’ve been a horror aficionado/gore-hound for as long as I can remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s no surprise, then, that the folks behind the ill-fated teen-centered horror flick ‘Wish Upon’ believe they had a built-in audience for their movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Well, they were dead (excuse the pun) wrong.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Wish Upon’ recycles the well-worn tropes of the “101 ways to die” ‘Final Destination’ franchise, providing it with a new twist by replacing the Grim Reaper with an evil octagonal Chinese demon box.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This weird and somewhat creepy music box, as the movie’s young protagonist Clare (Joey King) discovers, can fulfill all her adolescent dreams, such as literally causing the mean girl tormenting her in high school to rot and making the boy whom she secretly crushes on dump his hotter girlfriend and fall for her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>However, every wish has a price and Clare comes to the belated realization that her shallow and selfish desires are better left unfulfilled as they could very well consign her soul to damnation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Wish Upon’ is a dumbed-down ‘The Box’ without the moral dilemma or surreal artsy trappings, a horror-lite clearly aimed at the 25-and-under demographic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s a rather vacuous and gimmicky movie, but hardly an unexpected one considering such films’ relatively low budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’m sure its disappointment at the BO will not discourage producers from making similar movies in the future, but I will have to try a bit harder steering clear of them though I fear I may not be able to resist ‘Happy Death Day.’ &nbsp;I’m so easy.</span><br /><br />Grade: C</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/4rncs7zir/" target="_blank"><img alt="Wish-Upon-new-poster" border="0" height="640" src="https://s13.postimg.org/buv87u4yf/Wish-_Upon-new-poster.jpg" width="432" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-41500446412573498582017-07-18T20:50:00.003-07:002017-07-19T19:28:57.753-07:00Requiescat in Pace <span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: &quot;georgia&quot; , &quot;times new roman&quot; , serif;"><em>In so many ways they never truly die....</em></span><br /><br /><a href="https://postimg.org/image/4san3r191/" target="_blank"><img alt="GR" border="0" height="360" src="https://s10.postimg.org/qepnkrztl/image.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://postimg.org/image/fyg7hj6ij/" target="_blank"><img alt="ML" border="0" height="347" src="https://s9.postimg.org/rasszbf7j/image.jpg" width="640" /></a>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-64211368725354300272017-07-11T21:06:00.004-07:002017-07-13T21:17:51.600-07:00Diary of a Teenage Superhero<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our friendly neighborhood web-slinger returns to the big screen once again in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ the second reboot and third Spidey film franchise in the last 15 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The first trilogy from ‘Evil Dead’ writer/producer/director Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire was an unqualified success even if the last film fizzled out, but the reboot with Andrew Garfield as the wise-cracking superhero disappointed both critically and commercially and was canceled after just two installments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This prompted Sony Pictures, which owns the rights to the title as long as they keep rebooting it every 10 years or so, to collaborate with Marvel Studios and properly integrate Spider-Man into the rich and highly successful MCU.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It turned out to be one of the best decisions Sony ever made (are you listening, ‘Fantastic Four’ rights owner 20th Century Fox?).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After his well-received debut in ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ Tom Holland takes over the mantle in the brand spanking new franchise as the youngest Spider-Man to date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Holland’s Peter Parker is only a geeky 15-year old navigating through the minefields of adolescence and high school like any other teenager, except he’s not your typical high school sophomore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>After his brief stint as a probationary Avenger on “Team Iron Man” in ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ Peter Parker is eager to further develop his crime-fighting skills on the not-so-mean streets of Queens, New York, but his mentor Iron Man just told him to “settle down and get back to school, kid.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It’s like giving a kid his first taste of ice-cream and then taking it away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not to be discouraged, Spider-Man keeps patrolling the neighborhood and is finally rewarded for his perseverance when he stumbles upon the arms-dealing schemes of the Vulture (Michael Keaton) and his henchmen, who came across some cool Chitauri tech while pulling clean-up duty after the Battle of New York in the first Avengers movie until Tony Stark’s Department of Damage Control rudely stepped in and took over jurisdiction.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The verdict is in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ is a refreshing take on my favorite Marvel superhero.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is entertaining, fun and a highly promising start to a Spider-Man franchise that had gone stale for so long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Tom Holland (who first opened my eyes in this moving&nbsp;film: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2013/01/lo-impossible-disaster-movie-with-heart.html" target="_blank">The Impossible</a>) is great and bestows Peter Parker version 3.0 with a wide-eyed wonder and youthful exuberance we haven’t seen to this extent before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He’s also terrible at keeping his identity a secret, as you’ll see throughout the movie (and the last line in the movie is classic).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But let’s cut the kid some slack shall we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>He’s new at this superhero gig.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://postimg.org/image/o8vt9parx/" target="_blank"><img alt="SM" border="0" height="640" src="https://s14.postimg.org/g3drbjmj5/image.jpg" width="432" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-54677084894479237002017-07-11T20:15:00.002-07:002017-07-12T05:48:51.650-07:00Gru & the Gang Part III<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the genre of family-friendly CGI animated movies, the ‘Despicable Me’ franchise is easily among the most beloved and successful. The four films released to date (including the ‘Minions’ spin-off) have already garnered over $3 billion worldwide, making it one of the most lucrative animated franchises of all time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So what gives DM its widespread appeal?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The legion of unintelligible but lovable Twinkie-like minions, surely, but let’s not give the other characters short shrift because DM is a family affair with Gru, Lucy and the three girls who give the franchise its heart.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">DM3 sees villain-turned-agent Gru (Steve Carell, voiced by that is) foil the pink diamond-thieving ‘80s supervillain Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker), only to be fired by the new head of the Anti-Villain League for failing to apprehend him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Along with Lucy (Kristen Wiig), who resigned A-VL in protest as a show of solidarity, and his three adopted girls, Gru visits his long-lost twin brother in the kingdom of Freedonia and is tempted to return to the&nbsp;life of supervillainy he thought he&nbsp;left behind until Bratt re-enters the picture and successfully steals the pink diamond to power his giant robot for the purpose of destroying Hollywood in revenge for canceling his ‘80’s TV show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And that, my dear readers, is the story of DM3 in a rather compact nutshell.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I won't lie to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The “laws of diminishing returns” is at work in DM3 here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The story isn’t all that great and the series is suffering a bit of fatigue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But that’s to be expected and perhaps unavoidable in the final analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What’s important is that DM3 should give fans of the DM franchise what they wanted and keep them happy, and it did that admirably well considering the fact that it made nearly $450 million worldwide after only its second weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As for me personally, what I particularly liked about DM3 are its throwback ‘80s soundtrack and Japanese-inspired Giant Robot mayhem.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: B</span><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt;"></span>&nbsp;<a href="https://postimg.org/image/xytv1ccfj/" target="_blank"><img alt="DM3" border="0" height="640" src="https://s11.postimg.org/e47tf7x83/DM3.png" width="404" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-61761100735334993502017-07-03T19:23:00.002-07:002017-07-04T20:21:50.323-07:00License to Drive<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like many of you, I've been a big fan of British director Edgar Wright ever since his breakthrough zomedy hit ‘Shaun of the Dead’ back in 2004.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>His two follow-ups in the so-called “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy,” the buddy-cop shoot-em’-up action-comedy ‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007) and end-of-the-world bodysnatcher apocalyptic comedy ‘The World’s End’ (2013) were also great, even if SOTD is still considered to be the best among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Likewise, his movie adaptation of the graphic novel ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' (2010) was brilliant if underappreciated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I was therefore disappointed when he was attached to direct the ‘Ant-Man’ movie, then abruptly left due to “creative differences.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>No matter, because as his latest film ‘Baby Driver’ has shown, the 43-year old Wright is better off writing original material than having his quirky genius crimped by a major studio like Marvel anyway.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Set in Atlanta (like last year’s ‘Triple 9’ reviewed here: <a href="https://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2016/03/infernal-affairs.html" target="_blank">999</a>), BD dispensed with Wright’s long-time British partners-in-crime Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in favor of a much more American cast boasting some major league talent in the forms of&nbsp;Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and a couple of Jon’s (Hamm and Bernthal).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The film also features two young newcomers in baby-faced Ansel Elgort and the hot-to-trot Eiza González and gave them a chance to shine, the former as a reluctant getaway driver with the mad skills and cool nerves of a NASCAR driver and the latter as the saucy and spicy Latin “Bonnie” to Jon Hamm’s Clyde.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While BD’s plot isn’t exactly new being a variation of the “decent fellow who wants to leave his life of crime behind but finds it easier said than done” theme,&nbsp;Wright managed to give it a fresh spin with its unique protagonist and colorful cast of criminals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; In many ways t</span>his movie is also&nbsp;Wright's&nbsp;homage to heist movies, rom-coms and funky soul music from the 60's and 70's.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not only does BD work as an entertaining cops-and-robbers flick but also a romance with plenty of heart and soul (music), as Wright proves once again that he has a singular talent for blending comedy with humanity and a healthy dose of gratuitous R-rated violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I love it.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/n5tdntrst/" target="_blank"><img alt="baby-driver-poster" border="0" height="640" src="https://s22.postimg.org/xsn6t8zy9/baby-driver-poster.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-91620736131520869042017-06-20T21:48:00.000-07:002017-06-21T21:43:59.279-07:00How to Survive a Shark Attack<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Despite its obvious flaws I quite enjoyed last year’s ‘The Shallows,’ a movie about a cat-and-mouse game between a Great White Predator and Blake Lively’s hapless surfer-in-peril (reviewed here: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2016/06/girl-versus-shark.html" target="_blank">Blake Lively kicks Shark Butt</a>), so when the new Jaws-inspired movie ’47 Meters Down’ came under my radar I just knew I had to see it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One blurb even called it “the best shark film since Jaws,” so you’ll have to forgive me for jumping the shark, I mean into my local mega-plex to see it the first change I got.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The basic plot of 47MD is bloodily simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Easy-on-the-eyes siblings Kate and Lisa (Aussie actress Claire Holt and singer/actress Mandy Moore) go on vacay in Mexico to help the latter get over her recent separation with her boyfriend, who had the gall to break up with her because he considered her “boring.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Needing to send her ex-BF a “FU, you don’t know what you’re missing” and reasoning that “I’ll be&nbsp;enclosed in a sturdy steel cage and people did it all the time, so what could possibly go wrong?", Lisa (who does seem to be a tame and risk-averse gal in the movie) threw caution into the wind and reluctantly allowed her wilder and more spontaneous little sis Kate to&nbsp;talk her&nbsp;into going on a cage dive in shark-infested waters after a couple of local young eligible bachelors they met at a bar the previous night suggested it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What could&nbsp;possibly go wrong?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The law of “Murphy” of course.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was disappointed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>After sitting through a third of the movie following the sisters around with all their girl-talk and issues before they become shark bait, the big payoff I expected never materialized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Unlike ‘The Shallows,’ the tension and suspense failed to build-up to a level that kept me at the edge of my seat, and the sense of danger and peril were sorely lacking in this film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>47MD may be more realistic in its depiction of real-life shark encounters wherein a survivor lived to tell the Shark tale, but sometimes movies have to ratchet it up a few notches and over-dramatize things to keep us interested even if every marine biologist tells us that sharks aren’t the aggressive, human-chomping monsters pop culture made them out to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Even the original ‘Jaws’ went pretty far, right?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And I was shaking my head in utter disbelief when I saw the (spoiler ahead) faux ending sequence in which Lisa fought off tooth-and-nail the shark that had her firmly in its grips by ripping one of its eyes out, but then I read this hard-to-believe story: <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/hawaiian-man-rips-out-sharks-eye-survive-attack-he-claims-387077" target="_blank">How to Survive a Shark Attack</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Regardless, I still liked the badass, don’t mess with Blake Lively ending of ‘The Shallows’ much better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Sorry, reality is just soooo boring.</span><br /><br />Grade: C+</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://postimg.org/image/gxsq22dav/" target="_blank"><img alt="47MetersDown" border="0" height="640" src="https://s23.postimg.org/qv3qv4kwr/47_Meters_Down.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-21811381571623305312017-06-20T21:31:00.004-07:002017-06-21T21:54:56.594-07:00All in the Family<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I admit I am a bit of a sucker for low-budget indie horror and have, as you might expect, seen my share of both good ones and bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>For every ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Get Out,’ there is an ‘As Above, So Below’ and ‘Ouija.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>There are movies that were critically maligned that I somehow enjoyed, such as the unabashedly exploitative ‘The Purge,’ and ones that critics raved about that I thought aren't very good, like the highly overrated&nbsp;‘It Follows.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The latest such movie to get a wide release is A24’s ‘It Comes at Night’&nbsp;which falls somewhere in between being just so-so.&nbsp;</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘It Comes at Night’ (don't ask me what comes at night because I still can't figure it out) can best be characterized as post-apocalyptic survival psychological suspense horror (now that’s a mouthful).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A family of three comprising of a father, mother and their teenage son (played by Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) live in a secluded house in the woods of an unspecified location in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A plague or disease of unknown origin has ravaged the world outside, and the characters’ (and by extension the audience’s) situation awareness is so limited that all we know is what’s happening in the "here and now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;" </span>When another family of three including a little boy seeks their aid and appeals to their humanity for shelter, they agree to take in the family for mutual support and companionship. However, even sympathetic gestures such as this can lead to tragedy and disaster in the end.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While this glacially paced movie is fairly well written and solidly acted, it is not an easy film to watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not only is ‘It Comes at Night’ bleak, depressing and devoid of hope even by post-apocalyptic standards, its dark and tragic ending defies Hollywood conventions and leaves a bitter taste in our mouths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; Be forewarned.&nbsp; </span>All ye who enter this movie abandon hope because there is none to be found.</span><br /><br />Grade: B<br /><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></o:p>&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/vsgxq454j/" target="_blank"><img alt="ItComesAtNight" border="0" height="640" src="https://s29.postimg.org/r6kthrjlj/It_Comes_At_Night.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-52219402896972429032017-06-20T21:12:00.001-07:002017-06-21T22:02:29.173-07:00The She-Mummy<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Universal Studio’s much ballyhooed “Dark Universe” appeared to be off to an inauspicious start in producer/director Alex Kurtzman’s ‘The Mummy,’ the latest incarnation (or is it reincarnation) of one of Hollywood’s classic monsters harking back to the days of Boris Karloff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Lambasted by critics and shunned by moviegoers, ‘The Mummy’ bombed with a disappointing domestic take of $32 million on opening week and suffered a steep 60 percent drop over the past weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The final nail seems to have been driven into the $125 million dollar movie’s coffin before you can ask “What the hell happened?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Well, something funny, that’s what. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>With the savvy Tom Cruise at the helm, ‘The Mummy’ proved to be a mega-blockbuster hit overseas, particularly in China.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The film has now grossed nearly $240 million worldwide, of which less than $50 million came out of the North American market. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Just let that sink in for a minute.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>What would Hollywood do without the Chinese?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The critics are right though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The story (credited to Kurtzman, Jon Spaihts and Jenny Lumet) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>is pretty bad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Cruise plays Nick Morton, a sleazy ex-Special Forces sergeant and shameless tomb raider who had no qualms selling priceless artifacts that belong in museums on the black market for personal gain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>When he accidentally awakened the mummy of Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), an Egyptian princess who sold her soul to Set and murdered her own family for the throne but was thwarted in her quest to become queen of Egypt, Morton must draw upon every ounce of his wits and ability in order to prevent worldwide catastrophe with the help of archeologist and out of central casting cookie-cutter blond sidekick Jenny Halsey (Anabelle Wallis).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The main problem with ‘The Mummy’ isn’t that it’s unwatchable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The problem is that it cannot be judged on its own merits without comparing it to the 1999 version directed by Stephen Sommers starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While that movie was no masterpiece by any stretch, it was fun and the perfect Indiana Jones-inspired popcorn flick. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>By contrast, this latest is a weak effort that’s a sloppy slapdash mish mash of various influences, and the film suffered for it stylistically and&nbsp;tonally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; I mean, </span>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, really?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Also, Cruise and Wallis lacked the sheer on-screen&nbsp;chemistry of Frasier and Weisz.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If anything, this film brings to mind another expensive and messy failure, 'Van Helsing,' whose director happened to be the same guy who directed the 1999 version.</span><br /><br />Grade: C</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">&nbsp;</span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://postimg.org/image/5gzitqh91/" target="_blank"><img alt="TheMummy" border="0" height="640" src="https://s2.postimg.org/buolwzm55/The_Mummy.jpg" width="404" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-16740810886929066352017-06-06T19:18:00.001-07:002017-06-08T19:11:23.051-07:00Princess Diana of Themyscira<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Superhero moviedom gets a good dose of “Girl Power” in DC Extended Universe’s ‘Wonder Woman,’ director Patty Jenkin’s highly anticipated and “trail-blazing” film featuring a superheroine in a genre overrepresented by men (just ask yourself, how many such movies end with the suffix “Man”?).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Much hand-wringing and no small amount of feminist drama, including a controversy over WW’s shaved armpit (<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445941/people-are-upset-wonder-woman-does-not-have-armpit-hair-feminist-reasons" target="_blank">hairy armpit "controversy"</a>), preceded the movie’s release as Hollywood held its collective breath to see if the world is finally ready to embrace and, more importantly, financially reward a movie with a female</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> headliner.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having made more than $100 million over its first weekend in North America and twice that globally, we can all now breathe a sigh of relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not that there’s really any doubt, since WW was well-received and a bright spot in 2016’s ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (reviewed here: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-alien-vigilante-and-femme-fatale.html" target="_blank">Bats vs Supes: Dawn of Justice</a>), her very first appearance in the DCEU.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Israeli&nbsp;stunner <em>"what a Gal!"</em> Gadot was nothing less than gorgeous as the Amazonian Goddess Diana Prince, the greatest warrior princess on an invisible&nbsp;island full of Xenas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>After British pilot and spy Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) unwelcomely crash lands&nbsp;on her secluded island paradise, she joins him and embarks on a mission outside her sheltered world to stop Ares (as in the God of War) and put an end to man’s greatest folly, which happens to be World War I at the time.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Relying on familiar storytelling tropes such as the opening scene in which an old war photograph from Bruce Wayne triggers her story via flashback, WW’s origin is a nostalgic affair reminiscent of the story of another idealistic<span style="font-family: inherit;"> red, white and blue-clad do-gooder who fought Germans during the last century in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Partly set in London during the early 20th Century, WW also provides some levity in the way of a British comedy of manners.&nbsp; And even though Zack Snyder stepped aside as director this time his influence is still evident, like the 300-esque visual style and jerky slow motion action scenes throughout the movie.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aR0pREAUzaQ" width="560"></iframe> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/hyqmf201t/" target="_blank"><img alt="wonder-woman-final-poster" border="0" height="640" src="https://s24.postimg.org/s8t1eapxh/wonder-woman-final-poster.jpg" width="430" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-68957127906554838872017-05-22T21:52:00.002-07:002017-05-25T21:55:19.271-07:00Prometheus 2<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As an aficionado of just about anything 'Alien,' Ridley Scott’s latest film in the 38-year old franchise, ‘Alien: Covenant,’ may be my most anticipated movie of 2017.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Five years after 2012's 'Prometheus,' which I thought was pretty darn good (so sue me) even if it had too much "Space Jockey" (Engineer) and too little Alien, a new installment is long overdue as far as I'm concerned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>And the gorier the better!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Alien: Covenant’ takes place in 2104, about 10 years after the events which expired, I mean transpired in ‘Prometheus.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Centering on the crew of the space ship “Covenant” in cryogenic stasis entasked with transporting 2,000 settlers to a habitable planet dubbed Origae-6, only to be rudely awakened prematurely to deal with an on-board crisis before responding to a garbled and mysterious transmission from an unknown planet nearby which just so happened to be suitable for human habitation without the need for terra-forming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; Sounds familiar?&nbsp; </span>Needless to say, they encounter hostile Xenomorphs of various types on the planet.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While ‘Alien: Covenant’ is undeniably a direct sequel to the divisive&nbsp;‘Prometheus,’ it can also be considered to be a prequel to ‘Alien’ and hews more closely to the 1979 original than perhaps any of the other films in the official Alien canon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With deadly Xenomorphs skittering around the confined corridors of Covenant preying on soft fleshy things that die messily, the claustrophobia-induced anxieties and nail-biting suspense of that original Ridley Scott film are rekindled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It's also perhaps by no accident that the movie’s heroine, Daniels "Dany" Branson (Katherine Waterston, whose pedigree is impeccable given her lineage), somewhat resembled the young Ellen Ripley.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: A-</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/dwy3ghd85/" target="_blank"><img alt="Alien Covenant" border="0" height="640" src="https://s10.postimg.org/9ntdeb9yx/Alien_Covenant.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-41858228404599557512017-05-22T21:30:00.002-07:002017-05-25T21:56:58.309-07:00Short Live the King!<div style="text-align: justify;">Poor Guy Ritchie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The ex-hubby of Madonna and director of entertaining British Jason Statham‑starring crime capers such as ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ and ‘Snatch’ just can’t catch a break.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Less than two years removed from his unenthusiastically received big-screen adaptation of the campy ‘60’s spy series ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’ (reviewed here: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-mad-men-from-uncle_19.html">The Man from U.N.C.L.E.</a>), his latest feature, the $175 million sword-and-sorcery epic ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword,’ only managed to fall on Excalibur instead and disembowel itself at the box office.&nbsp; Ouch.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">Intended as the first entry in a new King Arthur/Knights of the Round Table franchise (now in doubt undoubtedly), KA:LotS retells the story of Arthur’s (Charlie Hunnam) origin, starting from his father King Uther Pendragon (Eric Bana) being betrayed by his power-hungry and treacherous uncle Vortigern (Jude Law) to his eventual restoration to the throne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The story is a familiar one, albeit updated with the latest visual effects, a contemporary sensibility and the quippy rapid-fire dialogue that has become a trademark of Guy Ritchie movies.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">It’s not difficult to see why KA:LotS crashed and burned so badly both critically and commercially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This latest retelling of one of our most cherished legends is a decidedly messy affair that’s hard to digest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>While boasting a talented cast, most of whom did okay, the film is pretty much “all sound and fury, signifying nothing” while lacking substance with an over-abundance of action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Shamelessly riding the coat-tails of HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ visually and stylistically, KA:LotS seems content to dish out one overblown set-piece action sequence after another, never slowing down enough to show that it cares about the characters or ponder their significance.<br /><br />Grade: D<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/skwcs43mh/" target="_blank"><img alt="KA" border="0" height="640" src="https://s12.postimg.org/rim69kkt9/image.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-53402026188940433512017-05-22T21:26:00.000-07:002017-05-22T22:07:29.809-07:00Iraqi Sniper<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The latest movie about America’s tragic, never-ending war in the Middle East is ‘The Wall,’ a low-budget affair directed by Doug Liman (‘The Bourne Identity,’ ‘Mr. &amp; Mrs. Smith,’ ‘Edge of Tomorrow’).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With a mere budget of $3 million and a cast of two, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and WWE superstar John Cena, ‘The Wall’ is at first glance intriguing but ultimately an unsatisfying war movie that takes a lo-fi minimalist approach.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Johnson and Cena play sergeants Allen Isaac and Shane Matthews, a US Army sniper team sent to investigate a pipeline construction site that’s “gone dark” in the middle-of-nowhere desert wasteland of post-war Iraq.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>After patiently observing the now quiet kill zone where the private contractors were killed for nearly 24 hours, the pair broke cover in order to recover equipment only to find themselves pinned down by an unseen enemy, a cunning and ruthless Iraqi sniper who takes particular pleasure in playing mind games with his hapless victims (namely Isaac).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The only thing separating Isaac and his sadistic never-seen adversary is a length of crumbling brick wall, which provides the setting for virtually the film’s entire length.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even though I’m as much a fan of do-or-die cat-and-mouse sniper duels as anyone (I thought ‘Enemy at the Gates’ was good and enjoyed ‘American Sniper’ despite its blatant rah-rah jingoism), ‘The Wall’ just didn’t hold my attention or interest&nbsp;long enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>In the wake of his bravura performance in ‘Nocturnal Animals,’ Johnson proved once again that he can act (although Cena was pretty much a non-factor after he ran out and got shot), but the movie’s limited by an overly thin and sparse script that would have trouble holding our attention for 60 minutes, much less its 81-minute running time.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: C-</span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/l8ytfebgd/" target="_blank"><img alt="the wall" border="0" height="640" src="https://s14.postimg.org/am509z3b5/the_wall.jpg" width="431" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-31739357459832419802017-05-08T22:00:00.002-07:002017-05-08T22:10:37.085-07:00Galaxy Quest<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2014’s geektastic ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ (reviewed here: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2014/08/rise-of-guardians-of-galaxy.html">GotG</a>) is an excessively fun and humorous galaxy-spanning romp in the MCU and a bona fide smash hit which exceeded all expectations at the worldwide box office, so it comes as little surprise that the follow-up would garner inflated expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With such a tough act to follow, can writer/director James Gunn and company deliver and satisfy the legions of comic book fans renowned for their hard-to-pleaseness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Inquiring minds want to know.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2’ continues the wild and wacky misadventures of our unlikely band of privateers-for-hire comprised of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon and a pint-sized “I am” Groot, who can’t seem to shake trouble wherever they go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>After narrowly escaping the wrath of a gold-painted former employer, the motley crew of misfits are called upon to save the galaxy yet again, this time from none other than (spoiler ahead) Peter’s long-lost father Ego (Kurt Russell), who’s a god-like sentient living planet of all things.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like the original, GotG2 is a candy-coated rollicking rollercoaster ride of a movie, but this time with family dysfunction at its core.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not only did Star-Lord have a misty reunion with the dad he never knew, green-skinned Gamora was also reunited with her sister Nebula, who wanted to kill her because she blamed Gamora for what their cruel dad Thanos did to her by being “too good” in their sibling rivalries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>But the real hero in the movie is the rough-around-the-edges Ravager leader with the blue skin and red Mohawk, Yondu (Michael Rooker), who showed us in the end what being a true father is all about.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p>Grade: A</o:p></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><img alt="guardian2poster" border="0" height="640" src="https://s21.postimg.org/iyxyv017r/guardian2poster.jpg" width="431" /></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-23335221639319266892017-05-08T21:42:00.003-07:002017-05-09T23:06:57.563-07:00Big Brother... with a Smiley Face<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every so often, a film aims to be thought-provoking and to make some kind of eye-opening social commentary about the human condition but somehow falls flat and fails to connect with the audience in a big way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I’m sure this was not what the producers and director James Ponsoldt had in mind when they tackled the challenge of adapting Dave Eggers’ bestselling novel ‘The Circle,’ a cautionary tale about letting too much information into our lives and becoming too dependent on social networks, onto the big screen.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The story of a young woman (played by Emma Watson) who joins a chic Google-esque tech firm in Silicon Valley but increasingly finds herself the unwilling member of a cult of technology which happily and unquestioningly sacrifices individuality for the “greater good” of openness and full&nbsp;transparency, ‘The Circle’ is meant to sound an alarm and provoke debate on how technology is encroaching into our personal&nbsp;freedom and sovereignty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yet despite game performances from Watson and Tom Hanks, the latter&nbsp;as the charismatic and fatherly founder of ‘The Circle’ with all his homespun wisdom, the film never manages to find its footing as either suspense thriller or social satire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While Eggers’ novel is powerful and effective, a true spiritual successor of dystopian&nbsp;classics such as George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World,’ this movie is ill-conceived from the very start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>‘The Circle’ should serve as a cautionary tale to Hollywood that not all bestselling books can be transplanted into feature films.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grade: C-<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></div><br /><img alt="poster-large" border="0" height="640" src="https://s12.postimg.org/yl2wgvdz1/poster-large.jpg" width="432" />David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-50797982814067882742017-04-13T20:24:00.000-07:002017-04-13T23:07:06.082-07:00Ghost in the Machine<div style="text-align: justify;">Mamoru Oshii’s animated feature ‘Ghost in the Shell’ is considered to be essential viewing and one of the defining anime films of all time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Not having read Masamune Shirow’s 1989 manga pre-dating it, this 1995 movie was my first entry into the futuristic cyberpunk universe depicted in the popular anime franchise which also includes ‘GitS: Innocence,’ ‘GitS: Stand Alone Complex,’ ‘GitS Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society,’ ‘GitS S.A.C. 2nd GIG,’ ‘GitS: Arise’ and ‘GitS: The Rising’ (aka ‘The New Movie’).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So when I heard that GitS is being made into a live action movie starring Scarlett Johansson, it became one of my must-see movies of 2017.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">ScarJo (in a somewhat stiff performance, but that's hardly her fault) takes on the role of GitS’s main protagonist, Major Mira Killian aka Motoko Kusanagi, the cybernetically enhanced team leader of the highly secretive “Public Security Section 9,” a shadowy black-ops department of the Japanese government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>When a Hanka Robotics meeting was hit by unknown assailants and a hacked killer Geisha robot (cool!), the Major and her team are assigned to go after the mastermind behind the attack, an elusive and mysterious cyber-criminal puppet-master known as Kuze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>As Killian closes in on Kuze, she comes to the increasing realization that things are not as she’s led to believe and begins to question her very own identity.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">Mixing the visual style of ‘Blade Runner’ with the hyper-kinetic choreography of ‘The Matrix,’ GitS has a lot going for it in the eye-candy department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; While </span>I can overlook the “white-washing”&nbsp;in casting ScarJo as a Japanese heroine and switching to a “nude” Thermoptic bodysuit, the screenplay is unoriginal and little more than a recycled neo-noir Philip K. Dick-sian conspiracy plot in which the protagonist turns against her masters&nbsp;along the lines of&nbsp;‘Minority Report’ and ‘Total Recall.’ Nonetheless, fans of GitS should find just&nbsp;enough to recommend here&nbsp;(Spider Tank, cool!)&nbsp;&nbsp;despite its obvious&nbsp;flaws.<br /><br />Grade: B+</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><a href="https://postimg.org/image/f2il1m1pv/" target="_blank"><img alt="Ghost" border="0" height="640" src="https://s5.postimg.org/c8ffo5zjr/Ghost.jpg" width="432" /></a>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-27492736020463297002017-04-13T20:15:00.003-07:002017-04-13T23:14:26.937-07:00La Belle et la Bête<div style="text-align: justify;">Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villenueve’s popular romantic fairy tale ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is updated for the umpteenth time in Disney’s latest live action treatment starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans and Josh Gad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With its “beauty is only skin deep” and “true beauty comes from within” theme and counterpoint to fairy tales like ‘Snow White,’ ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ in which the beauty and the handsome prince live happily ever after, it’s easy to see why this fable possesses such a timeless appeal, but few people may be aware that this tale was borne out of social-economic necessity in its time and place, 18th Century France, an era when young women of marriageable age (“beauties”) form alliances with men of wealth and good standing but lacking in appearance (“beasts”) out of convenience rather than love as a matter of course.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">You should be familiar with the story by now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A witch turns a handsome young prince (Dan Stevens) into an unsightly beast after he refused her shelter because of her looks (she’s an enchantress who appeared to him in the guise of an ugly old hag as a test), along with his servants whom she transforms into various mundane household objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>To break the curse, the princely beast must learn to <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">love another and in turn earn her love in return</span>before the last petal of a rose falls off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>To make a long story short, he manages to do so with a headstrong and bookish young woman uninterested in love named Belle (Emma Watson) in the nick of time despite various obstacles, not the least of which was the rakishly handsome but dastardly villain Gaston (Luke Evans).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;">Glossy, exuberant and with charm to spare, BatB is another joyous and wonderful Disney offering that’s nigh impossible not to like.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Watson is quite simply radiant, and the fact that virtually all the songs in the film are instantly recognizable and familiar didn't hurt either, making BatB a highly accessible musical for all ages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that this latest incarnation of the classic had already earned its place as the highest grossing live-action musical of all time.<br /><br />Grade: A<br />&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://postimg.org/image/s449rgq43/" target="_blank"><img alt="beauty" border="0" height="640" src="https://s5.postimg.org/vnq7h9stz/beauty.jpg" width="448" /></a></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-39360495310225863712017-03-24T23:01:00.002-07:002017-03-24T23:14:38.786-07:003 for 1 Special<div style="text-align: justify;">It's been a long time since I posted one of these short-but-sweet triple headers.&nbsp; Since I'll be on vacation out of the country for the next two weeks cinema-free, I thought&nbsp;I'd get&nbsp;a quick one in while I can.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Life on Mars</u>: A team of astronauts on the ISS recover a dormant and seemingly innocuous living organism from Mars and got themselves into a world of hurt (especially Ryan Reynolds).&nbsp; While 'Life' is but the latest incarnation of the creature feature in space (or other claustrophobic environments) like 'Alien,' 'DeepStar Six' and 'Leviathan,' it is a suspenseful, tightly plotted&nbsp;and frightening flick made all the more believable by its contemporary setting and strong individual performances.&nbsp; The tentacled starfish-like alien in 'Life' may not be a&nbsp; seven-foot tall&nbsp;xenomorph encased in hardened carapace with sharp teeth and razor-like claws, but it is no less deadly for its survival imperative.&nbsp; Curiosity kills not only cats and in space, no one can hear you say "we're fucked."</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grade: A- </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Powerless</u>: The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were all the rage in the 1990's.&nbsp; This team of five teenage superheroes&nbsp;in color-coded costumes with chop-socky karate moves and cool transformer-like toys was one of the great Japanese pop cultural imports, spawning a hugely successful TV franchise and two feature films, not to mention all those action figures.&nbsp; Like those pesky Ninja Turtles, now&nbsp;we get a reboot in Saban's 'Power Rangers.'&nbsp;&nbsp;If you've already decided to see this movie because it brings back fond memories of your bygone childhood, I can't stop you, but if you're&nbsp;on the fence&nbsp;I can save you the trouble (and time and money) by telling you to just&nbsp;stay away.&nbsp; Go see 'Life' instead.&nbsp; This latest&nbsp;movie in the PR franchise may be glossy and packed with the cool visuals one would expect&nbsp;considering its $100 million budget, but it is so&nbsp;languid and boring that I was on the verge of falling asleep.&nbsp; The five "chosen" teenagers are a clichéd bunch of misunderstood and angst-ridden rejects out of 'The Breakfast Club,' and although she isn't a bad actress by any measure, Elizabeth Banks had the misfortune of being miscast as one of&nbsp;the worst movie villains in cinematic history.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grade: C-</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><u>Office Slays</u>:&nbsp;In the tradition of&nbsp;'Battle Royale,' 'Would You Rather?' and 'Saw,' the latest "people forced to do unspeakable things to other people by unknown people who play god" movie is 'The Belko Experiment,' a low budget B-horror movie about a group of office workers in Colombia who suddenly and inexplicably&nbsp;find themselves to be the guinea pigs of a sadistic and bloody&nbsp;"social experiment."&nbsp; The devilish premise is deceptively simple and requires us to suspend our disbelief in no small degree, but once you sign on for this Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting gory ride you may find it to be a rather enjoyable guilty pleasure, even if its ending is a bit predictable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Grade: B<br /><br /></div></div>David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-68855121050238138732017-03-14T19:21:00.004-07:002017-03-14T23:23:00.717-07:00Island of the Ape<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It can be said that the latest Hollywood treatment of King Kong, Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ ‘Kong: Skull Island,’ would not have been possible without the success of ‘Godzilla 2014’ (reviewed here: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2014/05/gojira-king-of-monsters-and-box-office.html">link</a>), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Gareth Edwards’ reboot of our beloved Japanese big lizard franchise which went on to gross over $500 million worldwide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>So confident was Legendary Pictures in the popularity of its newly minted </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Monsterverse,” scheduled to culminate in the battle royale between the ape and lizard (what a marquee matchup, eh?) in 2020, it shelled out a production budget of $185 million for ‘Skull Island,’ plus another $130 million in ancillary marketing/advertising costs making it that much harder to turn a profit.&nbsp;</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">‘Kong: Skull Island’ takes place in 1973 (as the Vietnam War winds down) on Kong’s mythical homeworld, a primeval “lost world” somewhere in the South Pacific.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Members of a shady government program dubbed “Monarch” (John Goodman and some black dude) organize an expedition onto Skull Island in search of god-knows-what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>With a Huey air cavalry squadron&nbsp;led by brash and gung-ho Samuel L. Jackson providing muscle,&nbsp;former SAS man-turned-mercenary Tom Hiddleston as tracker/guide and&nbsp;photojournalist Brie Larson tagging along to record the momentous event for posterity, our hapless explorers find more than they bargained for in this most unforgiving of hostile environments.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With nods to ‘Apocalypse Now’ (cue breathtaking sunset backdrop and “Rise of the Valkyries” formation flying before being punched out of the air by you-know-who) and ‘Jurassic Park’ (yes, people got devoured by giant reptiles), ‘Skull Island’ can hardly be called original.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Yet despite all that it is an exceedingly entertaining popcorn B-movie that even the most cynical of viewers will find difficult not to enjoy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The action comes hard and fast, the cinematography and visuals are simply gorgeous, and the Great Ape had never seemed so… human and humane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Whether or not ‘Kong: Skull Island’ ultimately recoups its insanely high budget, it maintained the tradition of King Kong movie excellence and whetted our appetites for Kong’s highly anticipated smack-down against the giant radioactive-spawned reptile currently slated for May 29, 2020 (after said reptile's sequel due out on March 22, 2019, that is).</span><br /><br />Grade: A</div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br /><img alt="kong-skull-island-poster-2" border="0" height="640" src="https://s5.postimg.org/j6imrczsn/kong_skull_island_poster_2.jpg" width="432" /><br /><br /><br />David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7385129880870029279.post-53426885191157861822017-03-06T19:17:00.004-08:002017-03-06T20:13:14.871-08:00Logan's Run<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since I first saw the trailer of ‘Logan’ set to the mournful melodies and lyrics of Johnny Cash’s "Hurt," I’ve been impatiently waiting to see it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The Wolverine trilogy comes to a fitting if somewhat sappy end as director James Mangold (‘Walk the Line,’ no wonder his choice of song) followed up on his pretty good second installment (‘The Wolverine’ reviewed here: <a href="http://moviesaccordingtodave.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-last-wolverine.html">link</a>) with this even better, and certainly more memorable, effort that made us all but forget the mess that was ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ and redeemed the rough-and-tumble Canuck X-Man whom we all love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Hugh Jackman, in reprising the feral and animalistic character who can rip you to shreds for the last time over a span of 17 years, put in what may well be his best performance to date.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Well done, bub.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Loosely based on ‘Kick-Ass’ creator Mark Millar’s alternate universe graphic novel ‘Old Man Logan,’ the film takes place in the bleak dystopian future of 2029, one in which Logan and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) are among the last of a dying breed (as in mutant-kind).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Reduced to a shell of a man eking out a pitiful existence as a drunkard and limo driver, Logan – and the bedridden and even more pitiable former Professor X whom he’s taking care of like an ailing father – suddenly find one last worthy purpose in their meaningless lives to nobly fulfill when a young Mexican girl-experimental subject named Laura (Dafne Keen) needed their help.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span>&nbsp;</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Raw, primal, complex and unexpectedly dark, ‘Logan’ is the most deeply personal Wolverine movie ever committed to celluloid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>James Howlett never seemed so flawed, tortured and grappling with his inner demons as he did in this film, and Hugh Jackman had a lot to do with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Tonally and stylistically, ‘Logan’ is a different film from anything we’ve seen in the Marvel milieu, even for one that falls well beyond the official MCU.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>It is ‘Wolverine’ by way of a dusty Sam Peckinpah western combined with a Mad Max chase thriller, a brutal R-rated bloodbath reveling in its nihilistic excess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Ditching glossy CGI visuals and epic-ness of scope for a low-fi naturalistic feel, ‘Logan’ is a welcome departure in a genre that’s become somewhat predictable and stale in its very sameness.</span><br /><br />Grade: A<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></div><span style="font-family: &quot;times new roman&quot; , &quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 12pt;"></span><br /><img alt="logan-poster" border="0" height="640" src="https://s5.postimg.org/rj0w5xz5j/logan_poster.jpg" width="424" /><br /><br /><br />David Shuihttps://plus.google.com/106277765591923034335noreply@blogger.com0